


Minutiae

by NeedMoreCyanInk



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Drabbles, Multi, batfamily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5636479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeedMoreCyanInk/pseuds/NeedMoreCyanInk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> A hazy, muggy dawn is finally starting to spill out across the Gotham, the seemingly perpetual rain replaced by a layer of thick fog that clings to buildings and scatters milky-gold sunlight.</i>
</p><p> <i>Dick sighs and Jason smokes. </i></p><p> </p><p>Small moments in Batfamily life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minutiae

**Author's Note:**

> A collection of short pieces offering a glimpse into a life of crime-fighting in Gotham.
> 
> I didn’t have any particular timeframe or storyline in mind when I wrote these, they mainly focus on character interactions – so use your imagination.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick and Jason shoot the shit.

Patrol is over as quickly as it had begun. Summer nights were a blessing for their brevity in Gotham city, with fewer hours in the cover of darkness for criminals to operate under.

Nightwing and Red Hood are officially off the clock but a rough round or two with Penguin’s goons has left them both reeling. They land on the rooftop of a quiet building and lean heavily against a railing, both panting a little.

Tonight is the first time Dick Grayson has flown with Jason Todd since… well, since before Robin died.

It wasn’t the same as it had always been: they’d clashed numerous times about tactics in the past few hours alone. The Jason Todd that Dick had known when they were young got all screwed up at some point. Joker had beaten something out of him, and most of what was left was simply anger and vengeance. But despite everything, it felt so good to fly side-by-side again. It was progress.

Dick smiles vaguely and detaches the domino mask from his face.

 

“Nice job back there,” he says.

“Yeah. Guess their _neutralisation_ could have been more efficient. But what can you do, huh?” The Red Hood shrugs and removes his helmet, then fiddles with something from a pocket of his biker jacket.

“Is… that a cigarette?”

“So what if it is?” Jason is stand-offish as always, shoulders hunched and blocking his face from view.

“Bruce won’t be pleased about that.”

“Oh golly, have I disappointed Daddy?”

“Don’t be an ass, Jay.”

“But you make it so easy, _Dick_.”

“Seriously though… Your lungs-”

“My lungs? Fuck my lungs. We cheat death day-in day-out. You really reckon cancer’s gonna get me first?”

 

As if to illustrate a point, Jason lights the cigarette and moodily blows the first puff into Dick’s face. All of a sudden Jason seems to be a whole lot older than the excited kid who had filled Dick’s pixie boots when he flew the nest all those years ago.

 

“That-that’s not what I’m saying. Now you’re back with us, you need to be at your peak, you know that. You can’t afford to…” Jason isn’t listening, he’s dragging on the cigarette and staring at something far across the city. “Jason, hey, I’m-”

“Besides,” Jason cuts in, exhaling quickly, “I already died once before. Don’t even know how I’m standing here. Who says I won’t drop dead again tomorrow, or in the next second? I’m alive on borrowed time as far as I’m concerned. This cigarette may well be my last, Dickiebird.”

“Don’t talk like that, c’mon.”

“Who knows how long this Lazarus Pit bullshit will even last. And, boy, we’ve all established that it didn’t put me back together right, huh. What the fuck even _am_ I? What the hell am I doing back here, in this shit-stain of a city? Feels like I’m back to square-fucking-one, except now I’m king of the undead or whatever.”

“…You OK?” is all Dick manages to say, pathetically. What use is the ability to talk incessantly if you can’t use it when it counts?

“Fine. Peachy.”

“We’re figuring it out, Jason. You’re back in the family for a reason. You wouldn’t have come back if you weren’t meant to.” Dick attempts to touch him but Jason flinches in a way that has become instinctive, bracing himself for a fight.

“Sorry. Kneejerk.”

“It’s all right, I get it.”

“And sorry for the… existential fucking meltdown.”

 

A hazy, muggy dawn is finally starting to spill out across the Gotham, the seemingly perpetual rain replaced by a layer of thick fog that clings to buildings and scatters milky-gold sunlight.

Dick sighs and Jason smokes.

 

“Look,” Dick says softly. “I don’t understand how you’re here either, Jason. I can’t even begin to understand what hell you’ve been through. But… I’m really glad you’re back with us.”

 Jason rolls his eyes but doesn’t push away the hand that Dick rests on his shoulder.

“You can always count on ol’ Boy Wonder to say something corny. Can’t believe I’ve been dragged back into this by-the-book vigilante shit.”

“It’s what we do, Jaybird. It’s what we’re good at.”

“Straight-up assassination is so much cleaner.” He flicks ash into oblivion.

“But the feeling you get when you’re protecting lives, putting the bad guys away, saving the day… there’s nothing like it, it’s addictive. Just like nicotine is, I guess.”

Dick feels a rush when Jason finally cracks a smile.

“Shut up, you absolute Boy Scout. Here.” Jason offers him the packet of cigarettes and against his better judgement, Dick takes one.

“Bruce will go nuts.”

“Bruce will never know.”

“Bruce knows everything eventually,” Dick points out, and Jason snorts a laugh.

“True.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know what your thoughts are on these, so feel free to leave a comment! Thanks for reading.


End file.
